Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship today was an "inhuman" act that brought Tehran's archfoe "closer than ever to its end."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship today was an "inhuman" act that brought Tehran's archfoe "closer than ever to its end."

The Iranian foreign ministry called on Arab and Muslim nations to stand united in protesting against the raid.

"The inhuman action of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and preventing the humanitarian aid from reaching Gazans does not show this regime's strength, but is a sign of its weakness, and all this brings this sinister and fake regime closer than ever to its end," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

The hardliner, who has previously sparked anger around the world for saying that Israel was "doomed to be wiped off the map," said today's attack was an "insult to human dignity."

"Today, it is clearly evident that the Palestinian issue is not an Arab or Islamic one, but a world issue. Today, the reason for creating and imposing of the Zionist regime has become evident to all," he said.

"The creation of this fake regime is not only to control the Middle East, but the whole world. Therefore, supporting Palestinian people is like supporting the peace and freedom of all nations."

Iran and Israel have been bitterly opposed since the 1979 revolution but relations have worsened under Ahmadinejad who has called the Holocaust a "myth".